Many of my ancestors were parties to legal proceedings.

• "Jean deJarnat (John DeJarnette) was born in France circa 1680; died, presumably in Gloucester County, Virginia. He petitioned for Naturalization April 18, 1705, as shown by the following document:

  "LEGISLATIVE JOURNALS OF THE COUNCIL OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA, Vol. 1. (From the Public Records Office, London, Colonial Office, Class 5, Vol. 1412 pp. 561, 604). "At a General Assembly Summoned to meet at her Majestys Royal College of William & Mary adjoining the City of Williamsburgh the 17th and begun the 19th of March, 1702, in the second year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lady Anne by the Grace of God of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Queen Defender of the Faith etc., and thence by several prorogations continued and held at Her Majties Royal Capital the 18th day of April MDCCV in the IV year of Her Majties Reign. (April 18th, 1705)""

• A court record in the Virginia state Library states: "Belcher in Virginia , a judgment of court for a debt. Jan'ry 12, 1659- Thomas Wm Belcher ordered to pay Mr. Jno. Cogan 650lb. tobo."
• On Nov. 1, 1753 at Lunenburg Co VA, George Baskerville witnessed the prenuptual agreement between his mother-in-law Mary Allen and Field Jefferson.
• INDENTURE BETWEEN SAMUEL PACK AND HENRY GORE
• Suit in chancery by William Prentis, Alexander Spalding, John Lidderdale and Sarah Packe vs. John Blair and heirs at law of Robert Davidson.
• To the Worshipful Court of Amelia 27th Otr. 1768.

  We the subscribers do humbly pray that your worship would favor us so far as to license George Walton’s House as a place for those Dissenters call’d separate Baptists to assemble and Preach in....

• "Samuel [, my 5x great-grandfather,] was quite a hot head. According to court records of March 31, 1796 he accused his brother-in-law, Drewry Farley, [my maternal 5x great-grandfather,] of stealing potatoes from him. The court ruled in his favor. The same year he brought charges against Drewry for assault."
• Marriage Bond between Andrew Young and Margaret Glass.
• "Sir" John Clay brought a suit against the executor of his father's estate .
• Rev. Clay, a Baptist minister, was often in court in Chesterfield County suing his neighbors, relatives, and creditors.
• Edward Maxey contests the guardianship of James Gates and his brother.
• Robert Netherland v. Adam Ivey
• Jean sought to be naturalized as a British citizen as shown in the following proceedings of 18 April 1705.
• James Pemberton DeJarnette is a witness for his father in a court case in 1762.
• "...James Pemberton DEJARNETTE was still in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, as late as August 1771, when the sale of land from James FARRIS, Sr., to Joshua STONE, noted that the land on both sides of Allen's Creek adjoined lines of James DEJARNETTE and others. James DEJARNETTE had moved to Halifax County, Virginia, by August 1772, when he sold 137 acres of land on the East Fork of Allen's Creek in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, to William Spragens. The land he sold joined the lines of James GEORGE, Joshua STONE, and John BUTLER. Edna (GEORGE) DEJARNETTE witnessed the sale. From the above evidence, it appears that James Pemberton DEJARNETTE, his wife Edna (GEORGE) DEJARNETTE, Joseph DEJARNETTE, John PEMBERTON and his wife, Anne, John GEORGE, James GEORGE, and Benjamin LANKFORD were neighbors in the Allen's Creek area of Pittsylvania County, Virginia."
• The records of York County of 1670-75 depict William Allen in a variety of rolls: plaintiff, a defendant, witness, attorney, land owner, debtor, and lender.
• "I was born in 1671 in York County, Virginia. My father, William Allen, died when I was six and the court appointed Ralph Flowers my guardian to manage my inheritance — land and other property — until I became 21.

  Of course, I continued to live on my father’s plantation with my mother, Judith, who later married William Bayley. As a Colonial widow, my mother had a right to live on one-third of her husband’s land for the rest of her life, but two-thirds would become mine when I turned 21.

  In August 1692 I petitioned the court to ask Flowers to give me my part of my father’s estate. I had to go back to court four years later to get my portion of the land and the court rightfully ordered the tract divided into thirds, giving me two. I had to sue Flowers in 1697 to get a mare he owed me, too."

The treatment of "Rev. John Weatherford, a Baptist preacher from Chatham, Virginia, who was confined in the colonial jail at Chesterfield Courthouse for unauthorized preaching," was described in JON B. CUTTER, ET AL., Petitioners, v. REGINALD WILKINSON, ET AL., Respondents, IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES.

"His brethren and admirers flocked on Sunday to the village and thronged the yard of the jail…. [H]e would lift the window and thrust his hands through the bars that he might shake hands with his loyal followers. He would also preach through the window to the assemblage, and often in the ardor of delivery would thrust his hands through the bars in earnest gesture. Men of the baser sort were instigated to stand on either side of the window, and armed with knives, would slash his hands in unpitying cruelty until, it was said, his hands would stream with blood as he spoke, and sometimes in his gesticulations, forgetful of his wounds, he would scatter his blood on his hearers or on the ground."

For those of you who are really observant, the picture in the upper left-hand corner of this page is of a tree in the forefront of the skyline of Boston. (It was taken from the Esplanade.) To my knowledge, neither Jeremy nor I have any immediate family in Boston.

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Copyright Rexanna M. Keats 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003. All Rights Reserved.